Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. Follow her @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN)It's too bad Superman is not running for president of the United States; this would have been his year. Americans, as we have discovered, are angry, frustrated, disillusioned -- and yearning for a savior.

This happened before, almost a century ago in Europe. It was a time of despair; a time when the old models didn't seem to be working, when the world was changing in confusing ways, and hyperconfident individuals proposed a way out by blaming scapegoats and promising exciting, almost miraculous change. The results proved catastrophic.

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No, America is not 1930s Germany, not by a long shot. But the images of Europe after World War I keep coming to mind. The parallels are not precise, but we hear the echoes, see the shadows. We should heed the warnings.

Who would have thought that in the 21st century, American voters would be seriously considering as presidential candidates a neofascist and a neosocialist -- throwbacks to the old, failed utopias? Talk about fashionably retro!

Looking at Donald Trump stoking his supporters into a frenzy, attacking "them" -- whoever "they" happen to be at the moment -- vowing to return American to greatness and then flashing his self-satisfied smile, the mind harks back to those grainy newsreel images of Benito Mussolini, the theatrical Italian "Duce," the leader, who became the central figure of fascist Italy a century ago.

Is Trump a fascist? No, not quite. In fact, Trump doesn't propose anything close to a coherent ideology. He's a Trumpist. And we're only learning what that means, along with him, as he makes it up.

Fascists viewed the nation as an organism superseding the needs of the individual. That does not match Trump's rhetoric. But fascists also ridiculed and suppressed the opposition, and they embraced a level of authoritarianism that we can only hope Trump would reject. But who knows?

Cult of personality

One distinct similarity between Trump and the populist politicians of the 1930s is his ability to create and draw power from a cult of personality. The Republican front-runner's main campaign platform is that he will make everything OK. Trump will fix it. Trump will make America great again. How? That's not clear. He will do it by the power of his Trumpness. And we know it will work because look at him; look at how successful he is. Look how strong and fearless he is. There's very little in the way of substance. There's just a lot of Trump.

And to prove how much America needs him, he reminds voters that America is in deep, deep trouble. He hints at nefarious conspiracies; he highlights every problem and every threat, making it sound as ominous as possible. And then he vows to tackle it without mercy, even if it means committing war crimes, violating the Constitution, and expelling millions of people from the country. That, incidentally, would create the digital color version of those 1930s deportations: armed U.S. security forces (very armed) leading frightened people to the trains. (Or would he make them walk across the border?)

Charisma is a dangerous power in the wrong hands. When combined with popular discontent and disorienting change it can make a travesty of democracy and it can disfigure a society.

Validating prejudices

Trump has an uncanny ability to bring out the worst instincts in people. He validates the prejudices that people try to erase from their hearts. Trump seems alarmingly reluctant to distance himself from support from the KKK. Instead of debating ideas and policies, Trump insults and mocks people. He routinely appears to advocate violence against protesters, another disturbing throwback to the 1930s, and he draws a sharp distinction between "us" and "them."

We don't know what kind of a president he would be. It's hard to imagine he would continue to speak of punching people in the face, or that he would continue to mock people with disabilities, or follow through with any of his illegal or nonsensical proposals as a head of state. But there's no telling. He has already defied all predictions.

In a new turn of events since Thursday's GOP debate, Trump's opponents, who had seemed intimidated by Trump's savaging of Jeb Bush, have finally decided to take him on. It's good to see them challenging his empty offerings, but it's unsettling to see Sen. Marco Rubio also resorting to personality-driven attacks, eliciting uproarious laughter from his supporters. Despite the laughs, it's a sad sight.

Sanders found a scapegoat

Then there's the other end of the political spectrum: Sen. Bernie Sanders, the longtime Independent socialist politician now running as a Democrat.

Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

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Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.

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Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.

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Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.

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Photos:Bernie Sanders in the spotlight

In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the U.S. presidential race in 2015, the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."

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Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the U.S. House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.

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In 1990, Sanders defeated U.S. Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.

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Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.

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Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.

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Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.

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Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.

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Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."

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Sanders and U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

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In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

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In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."

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Seconds after Sanders took the stage for a campaign rally in August 2015, a dozen protesters from Seattle's Black Lives Matter chapter jumped barricades and grabbed the microphone from the senator. Holding a banner that said "Smash Racism," two of the protesters -- Marissa Johnson, left, and Mara Jacqueline Willaford -- began to address the crowd.

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Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas on October 13. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."

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Sanders embraces Remaz Abdelgader, a Muslim student, during an October 2015 event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Asked what he would do about Islamophobia in the United States, Sanders said he was determined to fight racism and "build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."

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Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.

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Sanders sits with Killer Mike at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta in November 2015. That evening, the rapper and activist introduced Sanders at a campaign event in the city. "I'm talking about a revolutionary," Killer Mike told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."

Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on March 7. Sanders won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.

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Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park on April 13.

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Sanders speaks at a rally in Santa Monica, California, on June 7. He pledged to stay in the Democratic race even though Hillary Clinton secured the delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee.

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Sanders endorses Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 12.

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Sanders addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 25.

Sanders is no 1930s Marxist. He is not advocating the takeover by the state of the means of production and the abolition of private property. But in the spirit of his socialist convictions, he too has found a scapegoat for all that ails America. Sanders would squeeze the rich, for whom he does not hide his contempt. In the manner of a demagogue, he declared, "Fraud is the business model of Wall Street."

Sanders proposes social programs containing the seed of potentially useful ideas, and he undoubtedly points to very real flaws in the system. But his overall approach, if it could ever be implemented, has the makings of an economic disaster. We know that because it was already tried.

Hillary Clinton's overwhelming victory in South Carolina may mark the beginning of the end for the Sanders movement, perhaps a sign that voters know Sanders' idealistic offerings, no matter how appealing, are disconnected from what is possible.

His plans would create deficits so large that there are not enough zeroes in calculator displays to hold them. His plans would produce deficits of between $18 trillion to $30 trillion (with a T) from new spending. You can squeeze the Wall Street billionaires as hard as you want. Even they don't have that much money. And while you're at it, see what happens to the economy if you impose the taxes required to even start those programs.

Sanders running honorable but mistaken campaign

Both Trump and Sanders are advocating granting much greater powers to the government. To be sure, Sanders appears to be aiming to force discussion of important issues in the campaign, and, unlike Trump, has run an honorable, throughtful and respectful campaign.

Trump would apparently expand government to secure the country from enemies and from immigrants. Sanders would do it to pay for social plans. Both positions carry a faint whiff of Nirvana, telling voters who feel unsettled -- by growing inequality, expensive unwon wars, and a sense that America is starting to fall behind -- that they have an answer to repair the country, to make them feel safe.